The Irish standard., 1887-07-09
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
A Terrible Disease That Will Eventually
Destroy Coffee Entirely.

Destroy COfee. E0Ctrely.
An old and experienced coffee planter
from Ceylon writes to the Chicago News
concerning the high price and scarcity of
coffee: Seldom has the price Of a product
in use Tor general consumption advanced
with greater rapidity than has that of cof-
fee within the last twelve months and the
bean is now selling about 135 per cent.
higher than it did this time last year. tits
the general opinion among the unlnitiated
that this is owing to s'corner" in the
coffee market and that the high price IS
only temporary to fall again when those
who are running the corner have made all
they can out Of the deal. But this is far
from being the real state Of the case.
True. there may be a corner, but at the
same time it is very unlikely that the price
Of coffee will ever again be as low as it
has been.
The real facts are that the high prices
now ruling are not due to corner, but to
the fact that the supply Of coffee through
out the coffee-growing countries has been
getting shorter and shorter every year,
and the present outlook is that it will con.
tinue to decrease until coffee becomes a
luxury only within the reach Of the
wealthy. The cause Of the shortness Of
the crops is not the effect OF rust and flies
on the plantations, but is owing to the raw
ages CT the henlella-y YES tatriX, or coffee
leaf disease, disease that is now absolute
sly rampant over every coffee-prod ducing
country in the world
The writer was a practical coffee planter
in Ceylon when this dread disease first
made its appearance no one knew from
where. At that time coffee was ''booln~
ing'' and would net S25 per 100 pounds in
London, sometimes more, A. fair average
crop or a second rate plantation would run
about 800 pounds to an acre, the estates or
plan tations varyingfrom $50 acres up sc 500
and LOCO acres. Sometimes as much us
1000 pounds per acre would be obtained
from an estate, this, too, without the aid
Of fertilizers; in fact, the Soil in Ceylon
WAS so ricii that. until this disease ap-
peaced, no fertilizers wore required.
But one day a planter noticed on
the leaves OF his coffee trees small
black spot surrounded with a yellow
isl fungus thai came Off like dust. On
some leaves it was unnoticeable Until they
were held up against the sun, and then the
black SPOT was distinctly visible. He at
first took no notice OF it until he found
that ali his trees Were similarly affe cted
and thai the leaves We're heginning TO
turn yellow and drop off. The coolies,
when they went into the coffee, would come
ont with their black, naked bodies stained
rs it with yellow ochre. The attention OF
his brother planters was called to this
phenomenon, and it was then found that
nearly cvely plan tation in the island was
similarly af ectad.
AT Peradanyja, near Randy, the Govern.
ment has botanical garden perhaps the
finest ana most complete in the world, and
the superintendent, the late Dr. Thwaites,
y u;
whole attention to This new disease, be-
slowing on it the name Of hemelis-
yestatrix. IL his opinion the disease
plaques hsti. but as month after month
passed and the trees began to look sicklier
the planters We're alarmed Crops began
to drop from 500 pounds an acre to 200,
and then to as low even as 100. and
in some estates to nothing at all. Once
hourish!ng estates were completely
snutfed oat and abandoned.
AT this time, also, Brazil was compara-
lively untouched by the disease and was
pouring coffee by the ton into the Euro
pean markets. The Ceylon planters tried
every thing, but matters got worse
every day. Every known agricultural
chemist in Europe was comm unicated with
ana experts brought from Europe at al
expense Of thousands of dollars, but the
money might Just as well have been
thrown in the ditch.
There was not a tertiLiz, z,r in the market,
nc matter how high priced it might be, but
was tried, a,li the only one that had any
effect, ard that was but slight, was sui
phur blown upon the leaves, The disease
was q peculiar one. Wood would grow
beautifully upon the tree and it would be
covered with leaves that to all appear
ance were perfectly healthy. Then the
blossom would come and 'tset'7 beautifully,
the bran ches being we'll laden with ber-
ries su dicient to yield crop Of from tive
to six hunlred pounds.
But change would soon come over the
spirit Of the planters dream of wealth..
Before the berries were half-formed the
fatal spot on the leaves would appear,
then the leaves and the half-formed Der"
Eies would drop off, and what had been a
splendidly wocded estate became in a
month OF two a lot OF bare sticks, with
scarcely sufficient crop on them to pay the
superintendent's salary.
When the disease was at its height in
Ceylon the Java people and the Brazilians
denied that they were afflicted at all, and
they induced the dealers in Europe and
this country to believe them. They either
did not know the symptoms OF the disease
they had, or they had some ulterior mo-
tive in denying it. They have continued
to strenuously deny the existence of the
disease on their plantation up to a very
recent date and they have been supported
by many Of the dealers; but their game,
for whatever purpose they played it, is
played out, and it is now universally
acknowledged fact that the disease is
everywhere, and that it shows no signs
whatever Of abatjng its virulence, and
that, moreover, it is as bad in Brazil and
Java as it is and has been for years in
Ceylon.
What will be the end of all this is hard
to tell The writer's opinion, and. as has
been said, he has had experience of the
disease from the outset is that in course
of time it will tually Kill! coffee en-
tirely.
THE FIRST WOMAN MAYOR.